“You Can’t Hear Me” is a wake up call for unity. A sociopolitical outcry about the state of America — told entirely in spoken word poetry.

The short film is written by Malcolm-Jamal Warner, spoken word artist-producer David Bianchi, and spoken word artist Chris Wood, the five-minute short film highlights some of America’s civil and social issues including systematic oppression, deportation and mass incarceration.

In an interview with HuffPost Warner says he wants the socially-conscious film to serve as an symbol of solidarity at a time we need it most.
“Our differences ― in race, sexual preference, economic ― have always been used as distractions to keep us divided,” he said. “We get so wrapped up in our own stories that we can’t hear each other. I want the take away to be that we are all in the same boat.”

The Caged bird sings as deferred dreams swing like strange fruit on a humid summer night

While southern flags burn hostile contempt for anyone not Christian and white

The rotting stench of a Co-opted culture and unprotected youth

Where lies become the truth at the send of a tweet

And black bodies are up for grabs wherever fear and hate meet

The strong hate the weak

and I try not to hate the meek who turn a blind eye to the lives lost

at the cost of white supremacy cries

And as Godly as I try to be I realize

It’s so hard for my eyes to see the God in those who refuse to see The God in me

And yet I still try to search for God in those who chose misogyny and hate as tools

to make America Great

Who would rather scapegoat than face that instead of being pre-occupied with someone’s sexual preference and race

We need to stand tall and unite against the powers that be that are insidiously oppressing us all
My eyes open wide

I feel blind you can’t see me

I open my mouth and I scream

YOU CAN’T HEAR ME!

Fight for justice

Can’t trust this

My heart I stand bleeding

You cut out my tongue

And I swear

YOU CAN’T HEAR ME!
I’m angry, confused, emotionally ripped

Being black and Latino the polarization’s so split

While my black next kin being shot dead in the street

And my fellow Latinos fear deportation and we—

Feed into the fear that the media delivers

While my ancestors cry

And sons and daughters shiver
Will my family be torn apart by Americas new policy?

With their names spray painted on border walls in calligraphy?
Latinos are the backbone of American industry

In corporate America I feel the resentment habitually.

This perversion of hate — these American disgraces

The other day I saw my 5 and my 8 year trying to scrub the brown off their faces

The hate crimes, the symbols the bullying that their facing

Go back to your country we fucking hate you ni–er-spick faces

And as a terrified father I have no consolation

To explain the anger that’s perpetuated in our nation

I try to do what’s right and stand tall so you can see me

But its gotten to the point I gotta scream cause you can’t hear me!
My eyes open wide

I feel blind you can’t see me

I open my mouth and I scream

YOU CAN’T HEAR ME!

Fight for justice

Can’t trust this

My heart I stand bleeding

You cut out my tongue

And I swear

YOU CAN’T HEAR ME!

They build more prisons just to house more children

Lock em up as juveniles indoctrinate em to the system
There was this 16 year old boy who was locked up

He never talked

But he wrote me a poem

About the locks on children trying to grow into gods
There’s a light out in the kitchen

His mother washes dishes in the dark
I got knots in my wings

He’s got walls in between

Himself and his family now

The news doesn’t bother now

They put blackface on children they’ve painted as thugs

They’re still building new prisons for profit

His pencil writes poetry that sounds like his dead brothers screams
They want to lock your mother’s sons

And your children’s fathers Away
And how many terabytes is the capacity of the hard drive that stores the body camera footage of a society of citizen soldiers sent to meet the quotas of privatized prisons whose customers are our children?

My eyes open wide

I feel blind you can’t see me

I open my mouth and I scream

YOU CAN’T HEAR ME!

Fight for justice

Can’t trust this

My heart I stand bleeding

You cut out my tongue

And I swear

YOU CAN’T HEAR ME!
My eyes are open wide

I’ll drop my pride so you can see me

I’m crying inside and I pray that you can hear me
Together we stand tall